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    What Helped Clean Up Oklahoma Waters? Getting Cows to Use a Different Washroom.

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    50 States, 50 FixesWhat Helped Clean Up Oklahoma Waters? Getting Cows to Use a Different Washroom.Oklahoma has been exemplary at cleaning up its streams. By some measures, more than any other state.A big part of the solution was simple: Give cows clean drinking water and keep them out of the streams.When one farmer tried it, he quickly saw results. His veterinarian bills went down and wildlife returned to the area.Grant Victor wasn’t sure what to expect when he decided to fence his cattle off from Horse Creek, which wends through northeast Oklahoma, bisecting his family’s pastures and cropland.The original plot of land has been in his family since the 1890s, and they added to it over the years. But a century’s worth of bovine traffic had left the creek’s banks muddy and bare, and its waters thick with kicked-up sediment and animal waste.In 2016, Mr. Victor resolved to change that. Working with a conservation program, he installed fencing around Horse Creek, creating a protective riparian buffer, even though it meant keeping his animals off 220 acres, about 6 percent of his family’s land.50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. More to come this year.Today, Horse Creek is no longer on the state’s list of most contaminated waterways. And, thanks to practices such as the ones enacted by Mr. Victor, about 100 Oklahoman streams once polluted by runoff predominantly from farmland have been restored to health. That’s more than in any other state, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.Tell Us About Solutions Where You Live More

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      Minnesota’s Green Crew Is Helping Teens Fight Climate Anxiety

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      Early on a Saturday morning in Minnesota, a group of teenagers gathered at the edge of six acres of wooded, hilly land. Most were quiet, some blinking against the sun. They were robotics enthusiasts, aspiring marine scientists, artists, athletes and Scouts.What they shared was a desire for hands-on conservation work, a meaningful response for many of them to their worries about climate change.“Cool,” said Sophia Peterson, the group’s 18-year-old leader, who faced the crowd with a grin. “Let’s get started.”50 States, 50 Fixes is a series about local solutions to environmental problems. More to come this year.The students were organized by the Green Crew, an environmental group founded by a teenager in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metro area. The organization seeks to help a generation that has grown up under the threat of climate change channel their fears into concrete action.Tell Us About Solutions Where You Live More

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      Trump Administration to Uphold Some PFAS Limits but Eliminate Others

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      The E.P.A. said it would maintain limits on the two most common “forever chemicals” in tap water. Rules for four others will be rolled back.The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it would uphold drinking water standards for two harmful “forever chemicals,” present in the tap water of millions of Americans. But it said it would delay deadlines to meet those standards and roll back limits on four other related chemicals.Known as forever chemicals because of their virtually indestructible nature, PFAS are a class of thousands of chemicals used widely in everyday products like nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing and stain-resistant carpets, as well as in firefighting foams.Exposure to PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, has been associated with metabolic disorders, decreased fertility in women, developmental delays in children and increased risk of some prostate, kidney and testicular cancers, according to the E.P.A.President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had, for the first time, required water utilities to start bringing down levels of six types of PFAS chemicals to near zero. He set a particularly stringent limit of four parts per trillion for two of those chemicals, called PFOA and PFOS, which are most commonly found in drinking water systems.The Trump administration said it would uphold the limits for those two types of PFAS, but would delay a deadline for water utilities to meet those limits by two years, to 2031.The E.P.A. said it would rescind the limits for the other four chemicals.“We are on a path to uphold the agency’s nationwide standards to protect Americans from PFOA and PFOS in their water,” Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, said in a statement. “At the same time, we will work to provide common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance,” he said. “EPA will also continue to use its regulatory and enforcement tools to hold polluters accountable.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      RFK Jr. Swims in D.C.’s Rock Creek, Which Flows With Sewage and Bacteria

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      Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, shared photos of himself and his grandchildren swimming in waters that handle sewer overflow.Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, posted photos on Sunday of himself and his grandchildren swimming in a contaminated Washington creek where swimming is not allowed because it is used for sewer runoff.Rock Creek, which flows through much of Northwest Washington, is used to drain excess sewage and storm water during rainfall. The creek has widespread “fecal” contamination and high levels of bacteria, including E. coli, and the city has banned swimming in all of its waterways for more than 50 years because of the widespread contamination of Rock Creek and other nearby rivers.“Rock Creek has high levels of bacteria and other infectious pathogens that make swimming, wading, and other contact with the water a hazard to human (and pet) health,” the National Park Service wrote in an advisory on its website, adding “All District waterways are subject to a swim ban — this means wading, too!”But Mr. Kennedy over the weekend shared photos of himself swimming in Rock Creek, with one image showing him completely submerged in the water. Mr. Kennedy said in the social media post that he had gone for the swim in Rock Creek during a Mother’s Day hike in Dumbarton Oaks Park with his family — including his grandchildren, who are also seen in the photos swimming in the contaminated water.Dumbarton Oaks Park is downstream from Piney Branch, a tributary of Rock Creek that receives about 40 million gallons of untreated sewage and storm water overflow each year, according to the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. City authorities are planning to build a tunnel that will reduce the amount of sewage that flows into Piney Branch and Rock Creek.A spokeswoman for Mr. Kennedy did not respond to a request for comment.It was the latest in a series of peculiar incidents related to Mr. Kennedy’s outdoorsman persona.As a teen in the 1970s, Mr. Kennedy earned a reputation as a reckless adventurer, eating bushmeat and enduring disease on trips to South America and on African safaris. He later earned notoriety for his handling of the carcasses of dead animals — including a whale and a baby bear.Mr. Kennedy has also said that a parasitic worm had “got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” More

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      Chevron Must Pay $745 Million for Coastal Damages, Louisiana Jury Rules

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      The verdict will likely influence similar lawsuits against other oil companies over coastal damage in the state.A jury in Louisiana has ruled that Chevron must pay a parish government about $745 million to help restore wetlands that the jury said the energy company had harmed for decades.The verdict, which was reached on Friday, is likely to influence similar lawsuits filed by other parishes, or counties, in the state against other energy giants and their possible settlement negotiations.The lawsuit, filed by Plaquemines Parish, is one of at least 40 that coastal parishes have filed against fossil fuel companies since 2013.The lawsuit contended that Texaco — which Chevron bought in 2000 — violated state law for decades by failing to apply for coastal permits, and by not removing oil and gas equipment when it stopped using an oil field in Breton Sound, which is southeast of New Orleans.A state regulation in 1980 required companies operating in wetlands to restore “as near as practicable to their original condition” any canals that they dredged, wells that they drilled or wastewater that they dumped into marshes.Oil industry infrastructure in coastal waters in Plaquemines Parish, La.William Widmer for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What to Know About Food Poisoning When Traveling

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      Whether you’re traveling off-the-beaten path or staying at a high-end resort, paying attention to how food is prepared and handled can help keep you safe.Two cases involving possible food poisoning among tourists have raised concerns about what travelers can do to prevent and treat food-borne illnesses — not just during off-the-beaten-path adventures, but in and around resorts.While the cause of the recent death of Miller Gardner, the 14-year-old son of the former New York Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner, has not been confirmed, Miller, along with other members of the Gardner family, is reported to have experienced gastrointestinal distress after eating a meal while on vacation in Costa Rica. And a lawsuit filed this year in Toronto in connection with the food poisoning-related deaths in 2023 of 8-year-old Stephen Gougeon and his mother, April, alleges, among other things, that the Dominican Republic resort where they stayed did not take sufficient care in food handling.In general, gastrointestinal illnesses among tourists — travelers’ diarrhea and food poisoning — is especially likely to occur in countries where the water supply is unsafe. But there are also many cases of food poisoning, and hundreds of deaths, in the United States every year, and these infections can occur anywhere there are lapses in how food is handled. Raw or undercooked meat, fish and shellfish can be contaminated, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of high-risk foods includes raw eggs and unpasteurized milk.Travel presents additional concerns. “People may be in places where the tap water is not necessarily safe, and they don’t have control over how food is prepared or handled,” said Dr. Adam Ratner, director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone in New York. “When you’re home, you have some control, and you have U.S. and local health department standards. It can be harder to assess safety somewhere else.”Ice made with unclean water may cause gastrointestinal problems because freezing, unlike boiling, does not kill most pathogens.Getty Images Parents should be especially vigilant. Babies and young children are vulnerable to dehydration, which is generally the most dangerous aspect of gastrointestinal illnesses; other groups at high risk include pregnant women, older people and anyone who is immunocompromised. But even younger adults and adolescents may not realize how serious the symptoms of food poisoning can be, and when it is important to get medical help.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Trump’s Environmental Claims Ignore Decades of Climate Science

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      The former president says he wants “clean air and clean water,” but he has rolled back environmental rules and dismissed the scientific consensus on climate change.In the final throes of the presidential campaign, Donald Trump is trying to cast himself as a protector of mother nature, even as he calls climate change a hoax.“I’m an environmentalist,” he said this month in Wisconsin. “I want clean air and clean water. Really clean water. Really clean air.”This past weekend, he falsely boasted about the quality of the environment when he was president.“We had the cleanest air for four years of any country by far,” he said on Saturday in Novi, Mich. “The cleanest water. That’s what I want. I want clean air, clean water, and jobs.”But as Trump talks of clean air and water, he regularly disputes basic facts underpinning contemporary climate science. His approach to the environment, which has been adopted across much of the Republican Party, would roll back regulations, expand oil and gas production and curtail the federal government’s regulatory powers.As Lisa Friedman reports today, the Environmental Protection Agency would be a particular focus of a new Trump administration, which would “tear down and rebuild” the structure of the agency, said Mandy Gunasekara, a leading candidate to run the agency if Trump is elected.These moves would come at a time when the consequences of man-made climate change are mounting. Last year was the hottest in recorded history by a wide margin. This year there have been 24 natural disasters that have inflicted at least $1 billion in damage in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Beaches Close in Maryland, Delaware and Virginia as Needles Wash Ashore

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      Beachgoers were urged to stay out of the water after dozens of hypodermic needles, as well as tampon applicators and other medical waste, were found on beaches over the weekend.The authorities closed beaches in Maryland, Virginia and Delaware to swimmers on Sunday after medical waste — including used hypodermic needles and used feminine hygiene products — washed up in popular vacation spots.The closures stretched along nearly 50 miles of coast from Fenwick Island in Delaware to Chincoteague Island in Virginia. The beaches include Assateague Island, a barrier island that stretches 37 miles along the coasts of Maryland and Virginia, as well as Ocean City, Md., and Dewey Beach in Delaware.“We currently have no idea where it came from and will not be speculating about a source,” the National Park Service office at Assateague Island National Seashore said of the medical waste in a statement on Facebook.Along with used needles, the authorities said they also discovered used tampon applicators, colored needle caps, and cigarillo cigar tips. An Assateague park manager told The Washington Post that crews had discovered the garbage early Sunday while patrolling after high tide. They had found nearly 50 needles there, and enough waste material to fill a five-gallon bucket. The official added that no injuries or incidents had been reported, and swimmers had not encountered the objects.The waste began coming ashore on Sunday morning, officials at Assateague said, and they were unsure how long beaches in the area would remain closed.The alerts impacted dozens of miles of coastline, including busy tourist beaches, as authorities not only urged caution among swimmers, but in many areas forbade activities in the water, including swimming, wading and surfing.“Until we are confident that the situation is under control, we recommend wearing shoes on the beach and avoiding the ocean entirely,” Joe Theobald, the director of Emergency Services in Ocean City, Md., said in a statement.It’s not the first time that tides have scattered such hazardous material along the eastern seaboard. In 2021, floodwaters in New York City caused sewage releases in New York harbor that sent hundreds of used syringes along the Jersey Shore. At the time, authorities believed many were likely used by diabetics, who had flushed the needles down the toilet after use.And, in 1987, dozens of miles of New Jersey shoreline were shut down after hospital waste and raw garbage suddenly appeared on beaches. In that instance, incensed officials believed the waste was illegally dumped by a passing barge.It was unclear on Monday how long the beaches would remain closed. Shorelines still remained off-limits to swimmers on Sunday evening. More

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      Klamath River Dam Removal Should Allow Salmon to Thrive

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      The Klamath River was once so flush with fish that local tribes ate salmon at every meal: flame-roasted filets on redwood skewers, stews flavored with fish tails, strips of smoky, dried salmon. In the language of the Yurok, who live on the river among California’s towering redwoods, the word for “salmon” translates to “that which we eat.”But when hydropower dams were built on the Klamath, which wends from southern Oregon into far northwest California, the river’s ecosystem was upended and salmon were cut off from 420 miles of cooler tributaries and streams where they had once laid their eggs. For decades, there has been little salmon for the tribes to cook, sell or use in religious ceremonies. The Yurok’s 60th annual Salmon Festival this summer served none of its namesake fish.But tribal members hope the situation is about to dramatically change.Four giant dams on the Klamath are being razed as part of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, a victory for the tribes who have led a decades-long campaign to restore the river. This week, as the final pieces are demolished, a 240-mile stretch of the Klamath will flow freely for the first time in more than a century — and salmon will get their best shot at long-term survival in the river.“The salmon are going to their spawning grounds for the first time in 100 years,” said Ron Reed, 62, a member of the Karuk tribe who has been fighting for dam removal for half his life. “There’s a sense of pride. There’s a sense of health and wellness.”Juvenile chinook salmon before being released into the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif.Salmon play an outsize role in nourishing and holding together ecosystems, scientists say, and their plight has fueled a growing trend of dam removals nationwide. Of the 150 removals on the West Coast in the past decade — double that of the previous decade, according to data from American Rivers, an environmentalist group — most have benefited salmon. Chinook salmon, or king salmon, in the Klamath are predicted to increase by as much as 80 percent within the next three decades.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More